"This felt like an episode of The X Files. This is such a clever take on conspiracy and the paranormal. It reminds of Hammer Horror Films where what you don't see on screen is the scaring horror. I'm not going to guess what the rock is, because I like to keep my imagination open ended, so I can keep thinking about it. I like how Alan and Paul ran out of answers, and they look to the sky, yet it is not their minds playing insanity. The eerie and unexplainable presence of the rock makes this a mind fuck, and I love that. When the rock gets there attention, the ending is like a Hitchcock tale. It's one of those stories that makes you believe that this happens in real life. I will be thinking about this for days. A truly extraordinary story."

From Out Of Nowhere

A short story inspired by a one word prompt from the Imaginarium House.

Submitted: August 20, 2017

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Submitted: August 20, 2017

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From Out Of Nowhere

“Look, Alan, I’m telling you this wasn’t here yesterday.”

“Okay, Paul! I believe you!” Alan held his hands up, indicating surrender. “So where did it come from.”

The two teenagers eyed the rock. It was huge, and by the way it had buried itself into the ground underneath it, it was heavy
too. It could not have been put there, not by a couple of people anyway.

“Maybe a truck?” Paul suggested, but there were no tyre tracks nearby, not even any compressed ground. It was on a pathway
that ran from Paul’s house to the main road. He walked it almost daily but apart from himself and any visiting mates he’d not seen anyone else use it. Not even his parents or his older
sister.

“It’d have to have been an odd shaped truck to fit down here though, wouldn’t it! I mean, there’s hardly room for the two of
us to fit down here together, let alone a truck capable of carrying something this big.”

“So how then? It can’t have just appeared here from out of nowhere!” Paul moved closer to get a better look.

It was a rock, about four feet high and almost as wide. The stone looked pretty much like all the other bits laying around; a
mid grey with darker streaks running through it and the occasional hint of purple. It seemed to be completely solid. The only odd feature was the
absence of moss; there was not a single patch of it to be seen on the rock’s surface, unlike the others which had quite extensive patches.

“Don’t know mate. Are you sure it wasn’t here? Perhaps it was covered with leaves, or a branch that’s got broken off
somehow.”

“Nah! Something this size? I’d have seen it. And if it had been covered up it would hardly look so clean. Maybe it’s been put
here?”

“By who? We’ve already been through this. No tyre tracks, remember!”

“Well maybe....” Paul looked upwards, into the sky that peeked through the gap in the bushes.

Alan looked at Paul, the sky, then the rock. “You think aliens put it here? Or it fell to land so neatly in this gap, all the
way from outer space? Paul, you’re spending too much time with the sci fi stuff. Get real!”

Both Alan and Paul approached the rock, one from either side. They pushed at it, tapped it, gave it a couple of kicks.
Nothing seemed odd about it apart from it’s appearance.

“Let’s go! This is one mystery we’re not gonna solve. Maybe tomorrow when you walk past again, it will have disappeared back
to where it came from!” Alan tried to hide his smirk as he said that, no point in upsetting his best mate over it. The two of them turned to walk away.

Perhaps sensing it was no longer being observed, the rock began to split open, not slowly but almost silently. Both Alan and
Paul paused, turned back, and two large pulsating tentacles shot out from inside the rock, grabbing them and quickly yanking them from their feet and depositing them into it’s huge gaping maw. They
did not even have a chance to cry out.

The rock slid shut again. Within seconds it had fused itself so thoroughly shut that there was not even the slightest crack
on its surface.

When Paul and Alan failed to return home, a search was launched, but there were no clues to their whereabouts. Nobody had
seen them, not since they’d left the park and started heading off to Paul’s house. There was no evidence to suggest that they had been abducted; none of their possessions were missing apart from
their phones and the clothes they were wearing.

We don't get to know!!?? Haha. It's nice to have a story like this once in a while, leaving the reader guessing. Nice one. I think it was some sort of creature created by a government experiment and some escaped. thats what I'm choosing to imagine ha

AuthorReply

Comment | 34 words

Mon, August 21st, 2017 2:46am

Yeah, sometimes I like to leave it as a guessing game. Or maybe that's just an excuse for not coming up with a really firm conclusion.
Anyway, thanks so much for reading and commenting!

This felt like an episode of The X Files. This is such a clever take on conspiracy and the paranormal. It reminds of Hammer Horror Films where what you don't see on screen is the scaring horror. I'm not going to guess what the rock is, because I like to keep my imagination open ended, so I can keep thinking about it. I like how Alan and Paul ran out of answers, and they look to the sky, yet it is not their minds playing insanity. The eerie and unexplainable presence of the rock makes this a mind fuck, and I love that. When the rock gets there attention, the ending is like a Hitchcock tale. It's one of those stories that makes you believe that this happens in real life. I will be thinking about this for days. A truly extraordinary story.

AuthorReply

Comment | 25 words

Fri, September 7th, 2018 3:42am

Thanks, SC. It was one of those really enjoyable tales to write....and I wanted it to be believable so your comment means so much!